May 13-17, 2024 I-70 Tornado
A large extremely damaging tornado that traveled along most of the length of I-70 from Western Kansas into Central Pennsylvania between May 13 to May 17, 2024. May 13: Kansas May 14-15: Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana May 16-17: Ohio and Pennsylvania Aftermath From the moment it touched down and plowed through Oakley, Kansas to dissipating in New Staton, Pennsylvania, hitting practically everything along Interstate 70 from West to East, hundreds of chasers and dozens of TV stations tracked the storm as it progressed through 6 states. TV News outlets had reported a record high viewership during and the following days of the event due to 24/7 coverage. While it was spotted by chasers on the ground and followed for the first several miles of its life span, at the time still retaining a large cone shape funnel, News outlets immediately jumped to record the storm as it tracked along I-70 with stations deploying their own chasers that attempted to follow the twister through the states. From May 13 4:35 PM CDT to May 17 10:12 AM EST the storm is considered to be the most heavily observed thunderstorm and tornadic event in history by ground eyes and live television outside of events such as hurricanes or blizzards along with the most heavily documented tornado by scientific instruments since a Wyoming Tornado in 2009 by the VORTEX2 2009-2010 research group. From all 6 states together the death toll was reached at 3,207, however, this number is actually considered debatable due to the nature of people still missing after the storm whose bodies were not recovered. From state to state the highest death tolls were in Kansas and Missouri with a combined 2,178 of the fatalities due to residents in the path underestimating the strength of the storm. The highest fatality rate in a single area was on May 14, between Columbia and St. Louis where the storm had 'split' and maintained two massive tornadoes, the parent 2-mile wide funnel tracking on top of I-70 and passing over the northern end of St. Louis County near the interstate and the equally massive satellite that devastated North St. Louis. While the center of circulation from the satellite was 3 miles north of downtown, the massive wind field that radar had recorded gusts of up to 312 mph affected the greater metro area causing widespread wind damage. 60 deaths in St. Louis alone are contributed to people believing they were safe outside the wind field of either tornado when the south side of the rotation brought winds that easily leveled neighborhoods that were not in the tornado's initial path. Between St. Louis and the northern tip of Chouteau Island, the worse damage ever seen by the tornado that would spark the debate of its true EF level saw over 567 fatalities for a stretch of 6 miles where the parent and satellite circulations where at their closest during their life span where 2 tornadoes both with winds topping over 300 mph where the edge of each wind field practically overlapped each other with just a three quarters of a mile gap. When the satellite had weakened to an EF4 level with winds around 196 mph due to the parent storm feeding away at the smaller vortex. This slight weakening, that while if the satellite had maintained it's equal strenght, could have possibly been wrapped around the North-Eastern part of the parent tornado, was rapidly reintensified for a time span of 3 minutes with doppler radar recording winds in excess of 367 mph before the satellite was merged back into the parent funnel. It was at this point that the tornado was digging the 15-foot deep trench that a below-ground storm shelter with 3 people inside was ripped out of the ground and thrown 500 yards away from its original location. During this rapid intensification, the storm had achieved it's strongest peak at 381 mph, though many believe these winds before the merge could have easily been over 400 mph or greater when the circulations were in close enough proximity. This 'split-sling-shot' event is comparable to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwhara_effect#Extratropical_cyclones%7CFujiwhara effect seen in hurricanes where two storms of equal strength and size would rotate around a center point before merging into one larger storm. From May 14 to 17, as the tornado tracked along the interstate, many residents in or around the path immediately started to evacuate an area roughly 20 miles away from I-70. The highway going south from Indianapolis to St. Louis was shut down and converted into an all Northbound road for those ahead of the storm to have a better chance of finding better routes to avoid the storm. The remaining 1,029 deaths that followed in the coming days were far more spread out than the events in Kansas and Missouri with people having literally had nearly 2 days of advanced warning and 24-hour coverage of the storm. Of the 1,029 between Eastern Missouri to Pennsylvania, 201 are blamed by traffic jams clogging up evacuations routes in Illinois and Ohio. On May 16, 28 fatalities were recorded in Dayton, Ohio where a bus carrying 39 passengers was blown off the road and picked up by the southern edge of the storm. The bus was only found out when 6 of the 11 survivors were found in the town of Troy while the remaining 5 were found at the wreckage. By May 20, 2024, state by state surveys had estimated a damage cost between an estimated $260 to $600 billion dollars in initial damages. EF6 Debate In the days and weeks following the mega-disaster, there was a large outcry from across the globe in the ideas that the I-70 Tornado should have been given the EF6 rating. As many, especially scientists, agreed that this was the modern day Tri-State Tornado, and such an event should be marked in such a way that no future event could possibly top it. However, as damage surveys following behind the tornado throughout the damage path noted that damage clearly evident to the highest level of known EF5 damage, some engineers and scientists calmed to have seen damage that could easily be the starting threshold of the EF6 category. The most notable signs being a semi-truck driving 20 feet into the ground noise first with its trailer wrapped around the cab that many recalled upon unwrapping the trailer "A literal Twizzler of metal.". In the city of Columbia East of Kansas City and West of St. Louis a 3-foot thick steel beam was found bent into a 170% angle. One of the greatest possible examples was damage surveyed at the Hawthorne Yard just West of Indianapolis where upon exiting the city struck the train yard leveling the complex and removing several lines of railroad tracks. An area spanning 4 miles from the path was recorded to have large parts of rolling stock that was present at the yard at the time of impact and eye witness reports of a 5 engine, 140 car CSX freight train pulling into the yard from the East was struck by the southeastern edge of the tornado and completely pulled off the rails. The crew of 7 aboard the train at the time were found a week later after the event when 3 of the 5 engines, all EMD-GP38's, was found 14 miles away from the yard still coupled together thrown into a forested area. (It's noted that each of the 3 locomotives themselves weighed around 260,000 pounds each when accounted for fuel carried during the event.) 3 months after the event many reports came out that whiled labled as 'Debatable EF5' under the impression that a full survey had taken much longer due to the massive damage path, the tornado was marked as an 'End Level' EF5 with meteorologists stating that with the damage done by the storm compared to other high-level EF5 events like the Jarrel, Texas tornado that "This is as far is it could possibly get. Very little is left in places where at least the roots for the grass would still be present." As of March 2026, the debate was reignited when data sets from several radar stations along the path that recorded the tornado when it went through it's 'split-sling-shot' phase that the wind speeds between the parent and satellite circulations could have easily reached 400 mph or greater before the satellite remerged with the parent tornado. It was at this location where the duel-trench and below-ground storm shelter was found ripped out of the ground and smashed to pieces with its 3 occupants 500 yards away. As of May 20, 2026, the rating has officially become permanent; however, new studies created by the event point to the possible reevaluation of the EF scale to possibly included an EF6 level labeled as a 'End Days' event that would be assigned to future tornadic events if such events such as the I-70 Tornado were to happen again. While the EF scale still leaves the EF5 max-limit as open, the possible EF6 rank would follow closely to the original ideas that were incorporated with the original F-Scale with a wind speed of 375 mph to be considered for the EF6 rank and be opened ended like the EF5. In addition to this is possible speculation that a possible future EF7 would now take the original classification description of the EF6 as the 'Inconceivable Tornado'. Category:Tornadoes Category:Deadly Tornadoes Category:Violent Tornadoes Category:F5/EF5 Tornadoes Category:Catastrophic Tornadoes Category:Kansas Tornadoes Category:Missouri Tornadoes Category:Illinois Tornadoes Category:Indiana Tornadoes Category:Ohio Tornadoes Category:Pennsylvania Tornadoes Category:Violent Tornadoes